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Former Prince Macaroni pasta plant sells for $3.55 million in Lowell auction

By Rick Sobey, rsobey@lowellsun.com

Updated:
06/27/2014 08:05:18 AM EDT

Auctioneer JJ Manning, left, signs the paperwork after Sam Poulten, right, submitted the high bid at the auction of the former Prince Macaroni Manufacturing Co. building, in the background, in South Lowell. The Sun has learned that Poulten was representing Jerrold Kaplan, who was not at the auction. At rear are attorney James A. Hall, left, and Donald Bedard, chief lending officer for the Lowell Five Cent Savings Bank, which holds the mortgage on the property. SUN/David H. Brow

LOWELL -- After winning the auction of the former Prince Macaroni Manufacturing Co. for $3.55 million Thursday morning, Chelmsford's Sam Poulten was hush-hush about the developer he was representing.

However, The Sun has learned that Poulten represented Jerrold Kaplan, who recently sold the long-underutilized Comfort Bedding and Furniture mill building on Thorndike Street to restaurateur/developer Sal Lupoli for an undisclosed price.

"This is a buyer who is really strong here in Lowell, somebody who is very connected to the city," Poulten, also co-owner of WCAP in Lowell, said of the buyer. "There is great potential at this building.

JJ Manning conducts an auction of the former Prince Macaroni Manufacturing Co. building, which stands behind him. The Sun has learned the high bidder was Lowell businessman Jerrold Kaplan. SUN/David H. Brow

"It will be something you won't be mad about," Poulten told an abutter of the property. "It will only look better."

The South Lowell facility, once famous for commercials declaring Wednesdays as "Prince Spaghetti Day," was auctioned by JJManning Auctioneers. With the 3 percent buyer's premium, the cost Thursday was $3.66 million.

The Lowell Five Cent Savings Bank, which holds the mortgage on

the 352,914-square-foot building at 2 Prince Ave., foreclosed on the property, owned by Prince Avenue Associates, LLC.

Lowell businessman Elkin McCallum purchased the property from Borden Foods in 1998, a year after Borden closed the plant and put several hundred people out of work.

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McCallum, through Prince Avenue Associates, LLC, took out a mortgage of $8 million on the property in 2000, according to the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds.

The 14.4-acre property in a densely populated neighborhood in South Lowell was first put on the auction block in 2011. A listing price of the property in 2010 was $8.75 million, according to published reports.

The building is assessed at $7.471 million, according to the City Assessor's Office. The winning bid came in at $3.55 million, less than half the assessed value.

The bidding war was between Poulten, representing Kaplan, and Steven Ploof, treasurer and co-founder of S&R Corp., a contractor on Broadway Street in Lowell.

S&R was looking to move a piece of its property to the former Prince facility, but Ploof said his price limit was $3.5 million, which was surpassed by Poulten, representing Kaplan.

"We have a few alternatives we're looking at, but there's nothing definitive right now," Ploof said. "He got a good buy with it, and I wish him the best of luck."

The three-story facility, with its high ceilings, was built in 1950 and was home to Prince Macaroni until the company closed the facility in 1997. Dutton Yarn Co., which McCallum owned, occupied the building from 1998 to 2006, during which time the building was renovated.

There is a large tenant -- Northeast Material Recycling, a liquidation and recycling firm -- in the building, as well as "a number of new leases, written or pending," McCallum previously told The Sun.

The Prince building has been a tough sell. It appears to have been built for one purpose -- namely, to manufacture pasta. Three summers ago, after several years of trying to sell the building on the open market, McCallum attempted a sealed-bid auction, but there were no takers.

"Some buildings you can tear down and make money. This is not one of them," Bill Manley, CEO of Hudson-based Calare Properties Inc., told the Boston Business Journal in advance of the 2011 sealed auction.

Manley told the newspaper that he "nosed around" the Lowell property at that time but was discouraged by its significant challenges, both structural and financial.

"If this is the same building I am thinking of, it was a multilevel manufacturing building, a type of which is relatively functionally obsolete in today's marketplace," he told The Sun in an email Thursday. "The property was in a decrepit condition as well."

According to JJManning Auctioneers, the facility is located in a priority economic-development area, and it's zoned light-industrial, manufacturing, storage, educational and other uses. The auctioneer also said the property is centrally located off the Lowell Connector, with easy access to Routes 3, and Interstates 93 and 495.

Poulten, as the agent for the developer, was required to pay $50,000 at the time of the sale Thursday. The balance of the sale amount is to be paid by certified check within 30 days.

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